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Friday, November 30, 2007

Ok, here's the more detailed scoop on what's up with my back/neck problems.

After posture exam, thermography exam, x-rays, and adjustments the chiropractor gave me the prognosis. I found a couple visual aids on the internet that are close to my situation...

A normal neck should be curved, like this:

My neck is perfectly straight, and tilts down a bit too much. This is known as Phase One degeneration. It looks kind of like this:

In addition to the cervical (neck) problems, my sacrum (very last part of the spine before the coccyx/tailbone) has no disc and is kind of "squished" up against the next vertebrae at an angle. That probably isn't the most accurate/correct description, but sorry it's the best I can do.I found a graphic of a slipped disc on the sacrum, which looks sorta like my x-ray did, only, there's no disc at all, and the two bones were smashed against each other...not flush, kind of crooked. Oy...it hurts just thinking about it!

Oh, and looking from the back, the spine should be straight, but mine is leaning to the right, which is also bad.(No visual aid for this one)

I was really, really impressed with the doctor at this place (that did an excellent job of checking me out - all as a free consult!). The way they explained how the spinal cord affects our central nervous system, which in turn affects: EVERYTHING made sense. I liked the sound of their "plan" to get me healthy...except for the bill. $2,700. OY! Huh-uh. Even on the credit plan, the monthly payments are more than our car payments.

Wendy has already beefed about this a bit on her blog. (She's got a messed up neck too.) Suffice to say we were(are) pretty bummed.